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KCU Joplin holds Mass Casualty Incident Exercise

KCU Joplin students at Mass Casualty Exercise
Fred Fletcher-Fierro
KCU Joplin students at Mass Casualty Exercise

The team-building event simulated what it would be like to treat patients after a devastating earthquake.
Victims included an expecting mom, patients who were unconscious and required carrying on a stretch, to those who had broken legs and needed help walking.

Kansas City University Joplinheld their 2nd annual Mass Casualty Incident Simulation Exercise Saturday. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro attended the event and filed this report.

Eighty of KCU-Joplin’s first- and second-year medical students participated in the mass casualty incident exercise to learn and practice vital skills that will help prepare them for real-world and large-scale incidents.

Fred Fletcher-Fierro

During the training, students navigated through a staged disaster to triage victims and implement life-saving treatments.

KCU Joplin’s Seth Peavlar was the student organizer for the event, which is intended to take medical students out of their comfort and put their knowledge to the test.

“Largely, we’re drawing on their general medical knowledge that they’ve been learning for the past two years.

The medical core club has also hosted several skills clinics which we taught basic assessments to make sure we treat the airway, the breathing, the circulation first, those life-threatening situations, or conditions.”

Mass casualty incident simulation exercises aren’t geared toward one particular disaster but everything from tornadoes to multi-car pile-ups and earthquakes.

KCU Joplin’s Medical and nearly completed dental school are constructed in the direct path of the May 2011 tornado, which destroyed about ⅓ of Joplin. For 89 9 KRPS News, I’m Fred Fletcher-Fierro

Since 2017 Fred Fletcher-Fierro has driven up Highway 171 through thunderstorms, downpours, snow, and ice storms to host KRPS’s Morning Edition. He’s also a daily reporter for the station, covering city government, elections, public safety, arts, entertainment, culture, sports and more. Fred has also spearheaded and overseen a sea change in programming for KRPS from a legacy classical station to one that airs a balance of classical, news, jazz, and cultural programming that better reflects the diverse audience of the Four States. For over two months in the fall of 2022 he worked remotely with NPR staff to relaunch krps.org to an NPR style news and information website.

In the fall of 2023 Fred was promoted to Interim General Manager and was appointed GM in Feburary of 2024.